A mother has slammed the police after a horror car crash left her daughter trapped in the vehicle for two days with three of her deceased friends.
The crash occurred in Cardiff, Wales, on Saturday but the bodies of the girls were not discovered until Monday which has sparked criticism of the police.
Eve Smith, 21, Darcy Ross, 21, and Rafel Jeanne, 24, tragically lost their lives in the car crash while Sophie Russon, 20, and Shane Loughlin, 32, spent the next 46 hours next to the bodies before being transported to the hospital, as reported by the BBC.
The mother of Russon, 41-year-old Anna Certowicz, has slammed the police for their handling of the incident, claiming that she raised the alarm on Saturday and was told not to worry and that they were "probably out partying."
Speaking to the Daily Mail, the mother claims that police "didn't seem to think it was worth investigating," and that she took matters into her own hands and searched for her daughter and her friends.
During the desperate hunt, Certowicz revealed that she drove past the spot where the VW Tiguan was discovered three times but was unable to see it amongst the trees.
The search for the five young adults widened and 200 volunteers began searching for them before they were discovered by a dog walker which Certowicz says "speaks volumes" about the police.
Speaking to the Mail she said: "I feel terrible for the families of Eve and Darcy, they were all best friends and had known each other since they were small."
Certowicz continued: "It's too awful to imagine what she went through trapped in the car in the dark until it got light and then dark again over two days. [Russon] was lying there for all that time, they could all have been found much quicker if the police had started searching straight away."
Russon and Loughlin remain in the hospital in a critical but stable condition, with the former being treated for a bleed on the brain and fractures to her neck, spine, and face.
Tamzin Samuels, a friend of those involved in the crash, also criticized the police response as it wasn't until 11:00 PM on Sunday that they put out a public appeal.
Speaking to the Mail, Samuels said: "I do think the police could have done a lot more in putting the helicopters out earlier. They only posted the appeal an hour before the girls were found. We found them before the police found them – we rang the police.
"The search party found the girls before the police found the girls. I think that speaks volumes really, they had all that equipment, and we had cars when we were looking."
She continued: "They were really popular girls, the life of the party, and it was really out of character for them to do what they did, which is why we knew something was wrong."
Russon's mother claims that her daughter was screaming out for help during her time trapped in the vehicle, but nobody heard her pleas.
Gwent Police and South Wales Police have referred themselves to the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC), which is customary in such circumstances.
